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22/03/2017

I am one of those people who never wins anything good. Over the last 20 plus years, I have entered numerous competitions, prize draws and raffles with no success.

I didn’t even win at Pass the Parcel at school!

Having played the UK National Lottery online every week since it began in 1997, I have of course occasionally got the “please sign in to your account, we’ve got some news about your ticket” email.

When I get these emails I silently pray; “please don’t let this be a pathetic prize”. I then log in and what do you know, it is the smallest prize possible. Not enough to even get a nice lunch.

Earlier this month there was a sweepstake at work for the Cheltenham horse races. I pulled the favourite out of the hat, so I thought finally my luck was in. It wasn’t.

Given my poor track record of success, I didn’t expect much of a result when I recently entered a competition to win a couple of subscription boxes, so imagine my surprise when I was informed that I had actually won!

The competition was run by JaWarlock (@jawarlock), who runs a great YouTube Channel that I subscribe to. He posts unboxing videos/reviews of mystery geek related subscription boxes, so if you are unsure of which one to get, it is a great way of seeing what is out there.

I recently received the subscription box prizes in the post, so I thought it would be good to do a review for you guys. I got 2 boxes, one was the January ZBOX and the other was the January My Geek Box.

The review below is for the ZBOX.

Information

The ZBOX costs £19.99 and is a monthly subscription mystery themed box, filled with memorabilia from your favourite film, TV, and gaming franchises.

Subscriptions can be on a 1-month re-occurring basis or on a longer term if you prefer. The longer term options (3 months, 6 months and 1 year) mean you pay less for each box but are tied down for a bit longer.

The ZBOX comes in a large brown cardboard box. Branding is sufficient but not particularly exciting. The Box itself is considerably larger than most other subscription boxes.

The theme this month was Mystical.

Tabatha Graphic Novel

This Graphic novel had me intrigued. It just sounded really interesting. The plot follows a postman who robs clients when they are away from home but one day, unfortunately, robs the wrong person.

I read this from cover to cover in one sitting and it really was a fantastic read. Definitely my favourite item in the box and it reminded me of how much I used to enjoy graphic novels. The art was vibrant and the humour was spot on too.

I guess that is what is why I love subscription boxes, sometimes you get exposed to something great that you would not normally read or try. I will definitely check out more of writers Neil Gibson’s (@TwistedNeil, @TPubComics) work in future!

Rating: 4/5.Dark but humorous graphic novel by Neil Gibson. Brilliant

Fantastic Beasts T-Shirt

The second item in the January 2017 ZBOX is a Fantastic Beasts t-shirt. Now I haven’t seen the movie, so I can’t comment on how representative it is, but the design is decent enough.

Unfortunately, the size is Large and I am a Medium so I will probably give this away.

Rating: 3/5. Nice enough T-Shirt but unfortunately not my size.

Dragon Age Mini Vinyl Figurine

The next item in the box is this vinyl figurine. I haven’t played the game but usually, if the figurine is nice I can usually appreciate the aesthetics of the design.

Unfortunately, in this case, I don’t really care for the look of the figure. To me, this isn’t interesting enough to display (I mean it’s ok) and I don’t really know anyone who is a huge fan of Dragon Age, so this item is a bit redundant for me, unfortunately.

Rating: 2/5. Not a fan of the franchise or the look, but can appreciate that others may like this more.

Harry Potter Lunch Box

When I saw this Harry Potter lunch box originally, I was initially disappointed. I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, but upon close examination I actually really like it. The design is pretty cool and it gets bonus marks for being an Officially Licensed product.

One advantage of the ZBOX over other Subscription boxes is the size of the box compared to its competitors. Because the Harry Potter lunch box is quite big, it wouldn’t be something that would fit in say the 1up Box.

I personally won’t use it as a lunch box but for me, it still has a dual purpose, firstly for display and secondly as a container/storage for my gaming bits and bobs.

Rating: 3.5/5. Good quality item, with a great design.

ZBOX magazine

This mini magazine contains a few articles as well as a description of the contents of the box. I personally didn’t find the articles that interesting, a felt they were a bit light, to be honest, I much prefer the articles in the Geek Fuel subscription box magazine.

Rating: 2.5/5. Articles were a bit meh for me. Ok not great.

Overall Rating

I loved the Tabatha graphic novel and the Harry Potter lunch box. The T-shirt was ok but the magazine and the Dragon Age Figure didn’t really do it for me. I also feel they could have included at least one more item. (They only had 4 items excluding the magazine)

Rating: 3/5. Mixed quality of items, but I was happy with the box overall

Pang Man

(Want me to review a subscription box or other gaming/geek related merchandise? If so give me a shout on twitter @Pangman2017 or email me on Pangman2017@gmail.com!)